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Ellef's lawyer, Hugh Keefe, declined Wednesday to confirm or deny that his client has offered to cooperate with prosecutors.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor, Tom Carson, declined to comment today.
But the sources say Ellef has been negotiating with federal prosecutors for as long as six weeks in a bid to head off charges that also could be lodged against family members and associates.
Sources say those talks were interrupted last month by a dispute but that it has been resolved and the negotiations are proceeding.
"That's the reason everything has been on hold," one source said of the indictments that had been anticipated last month and that are expected to include current and former Rowland administration officials.
The sources agree that any deal would have the gruff and taciturn Ellef become a cooperating government witness in exchange for his guilty plea to a corruption charge.
Such deals usually involve a witness "trading up" with prosecutors -- providing damaging evidence about a higher official.
Anson was dismissed by Rowland in September after disclosures that the commissioner had accepted free architectural plans for an addition to his house in Bridgewater from a firm with state contracts.
Anson's dismissal came just weeks after Rowland himself admitted accepting free or discounted vacation rentals linked to two state contractors, including the New Britain-based Tomasso Group.
Anson was not available for comment today. But the former commissioner told the Journal Inquirer last winter that he knew little about admissions by Rowland's former deputy chief of staff, Lawrence E. Alibozek, that Alibozek had helped steer contracts overseen by the DPW in exchange for cash and gold.
Anson added that with several of the key contracts being scrutinized by federal investigators -- more than $100 million of work awarded to Tomasso companies -- he dealt exclusively with Alibozek's boss in the governor's office, Ellef, who was a close friend of a Tomasso family member.
Ellef, who also served as chairman of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, quit Rowland's office last spring amid controversy over the quasi-public agency's $220 million loss in a deal with now-bankrupt Enron Corp.
Ellef figures prominently not only in the investigation of the Enron deal but also in the contract-steering probe spurred by Alibozek's confession and conviction last March.
Several informed sources had told the Journal Inquirer in September that they expected by November a slew of federal indictments in connection with the contract-steering scandal.
They said then that Rowland was not to be among those charged but that several of the governor's appointees in at least two state agencies were. They also said that two lobbyists, including one close to Rowland, would be among those indicted.
The sources now say that the indictment timetable was changed when serious negotiations for a plea bargain with Ellef began five or six weeks ago.
Many documents the governor's office has submitted to federal investigators concern two big DPW contracts awarded to the Tomasso Group, the $57 million Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown and the $37 million Superior Court for Juvenile Matters and Detention Center in Bridgeport.
Also mentioned often in the documents is the $36.9 million contract the state Department of Transportation awarded a Tomasso company to build a parking garage at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.
The brother-in-law of prominent lobbyist Jay F. Malcynsky, a political adviser to Rowland, headed the DOT committee that gave the contract to the Tomasso company.
Both were "fast-track" projects overseen by Ellef.
